By By BETTY MITCHELL GRAY
Staff Writer
A new heritage-tourism region for coastal North Carolina and an accompanying federal designation for U.S. Highway 17 could bring tourism, economic development and as much as $1 million a year for tourism-related projects to communities in the region.
That’s the hope of eastern North Carolina tourism and economic-development officials who are seeking to develop a heritage-tourism region — in the eastern part of the state — based on the area’s colonial and military history and, ultimately, seek congressional approval of a plan to designate U.S. Highway 17 as a Heritage Highway.
The effort is coordinated by the three North Carolina economic-development partnerships and tourism agencies in the east.
“It would be a tremendous boon for this area,” said Lynn Lewis, Washington’s tourism-development director, in an interview. “It would bring in money that could be used for tourism development all along the Highway 17 corridor.
“In the past, Highway 17 has been known as the Ocean Highway,” Lewis said. “We’d like to bring some of that notoriety back to Highway 17 as the more scenic alternative to Interstate 95.”
The first steps in the process to receive heritage status are under way in the three economic-development regions that comprise some 40 counties east of Interstate 95, according to Van Rogerson, president and chief executive officer of North Carolina’s Northeast Commission, one of the three economic-development groups involved in the project.
Initially, tourism and economic developers in the east are working with state tourism and cultural agencies to compile a list of tourism-related offices and cultural and historic sites in the area — including those that need additional development money — and develop a cooperative marketing campaign.
Tentatively named Gateway to Freedom, the heritage area, if approved, would highlight the region’s ties to the early days of the nation and highlight the role of the military in preserving the freedoms advocated by the nation’s founders, Rogerson said.
“The ultimate goal is a federal heritage designation which would help us brand the region,” he said. “A sense of place is important for tourism and economic development.”
A federal heritage designation could bring as much as $1 million a year for 10 years as matching funds to communities within the heritage region to market tourism sites and develop new ones, Rogerson said.
“Highway 17 would really be the backbone of the heritage corridor,” Rogerson said.
Ultimately, the groups would seek heritage status for that highway through the National Scenic Byways Program.
The National Scenic Byways Program was established under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 and reauthorized in 1998 under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century. Corridors are recognized as National Scenic Byways or All-American Roads based on archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational and scenic qualities, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration, which manages and promotes the program as America’s Byways.
There are 151 such designated byways in 46 states including four in North Carolina — the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Cherohala Skyway, the Forest Heritage National Scenic Byway and the Outer Banks Scenic Byway. Other well-known routes include the Route 1-Big Sur Coastal Highway in California, the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut, the Florida Keys Scenic Highway, the Coal Heritage Trail in West Virginia and the Ashley River Road in South Carolina.
Grants for byway projects are awarded each year by the National Scenic Byways Discretionary Grants program.